Off-topic, but Gothamist is reporting that Saturday's Dave Chappelle's Block Party was the setting for the Wattstax-like documentary film he was making witih Michel Gondry. MTV says the film's release strategy is to go straight-toDVD.
Excerpt from the NY Times' review:
In some ways, though, the day's most important performer was the rapper-producer Mr. West, whose brilliant debut album, "The College Dropout" (Roc-A-Fella/Island Def Jam), proudly courts both Fugees fans and "costs a few-g's" fans - slyly admitting along the way that most listeners are a bit of both. Backed by a band led by Questlove, Mr. West rapped his way through "We Don't Care" (an ambivalent ode to drug dealers) and "Spaceship" (in which he recounts a disastrous - and larcenous - tenure at the Gap).
Mr. West noted that he would probably be the only rapper onstage all day wearing diamonds, but he seemed to like being slightly out of place, the way he always is. Best of all, in a day filled with special guests, Mr. West had the best and weirdest one: Freeway, a fierce, bearded ranter from Philadelphia, who showed up 20 minutes too late to perform his verse in Mr. West's track, "Two Words."
No matter. Freeway rapped anyway, barreling through a verse from "What We Do," rhyming a cappella until Questlove joined in. "When the teeth stop showing/And the stomach start growling/Then the heat start flowing," he snarled, giving the friendly block party the one thing it might otherwise have lacked: an antihero.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2004-09-20 11:22 am (UTC)Excerpt from the NY Times' review:
In some ways, though, the day's most important performer was the rapper-producer Mr. West, whose brilliant debut album, "The College Dropout" (Roc-A-Fella/Island Def Jam), proudly courts both Fugees fans and "costs a few-g's" fans - slyly admitting along the way that most listeners are a bit of both. Backed by a band led by Questlove, Mr. West rapped his way through "We Don't Care" (an ambivalent ode to drug dealers) and "Spaceship" (in which he recounts a disastrous - and larcenous - tenure at the Gap).
Mr. West noted that he would probably be the only rapper onstage all day wearing diamonds, but he seemed to like being slightly out of place, the way he always is. Best of all, in a day filled with special guests, Mr. West had the best and weirdest one: Freeway, a fierce, bearded ranter from Philadelphia, who showed up 20 minutes too late to perform his verse in Mr. West's track, "Two Words."
No matter. Freeway rapped anyway, barreling through a verse from "What We Do," rhyming a cappella until Questlove joined in. "When the teeth stop showing/And the stomach start growling/Then the heat start flowing," he snarled, giving the friendly block party the one thing it might otherwise have lacked: an antihero.